Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: Increased IUGR risk reported

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– Women with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome who became pregnant were more likely to experience antepartum hemorrhage, placenta previa, cervical incompetence, and preterm birth, according to a retrospective cohort study of national birth data. Long hospital stays also were more likely among these women.

Kari Oakes/MDedge News
Dr. Laura Nicholls-Dempsey

Infants born to women with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) were significantly more likely to have intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) as well, an unexpected and as-yet unexplained finding, said the study’s first author, Laura Nicholls-Dempsey, MD, speaking at a poster session at the meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Complications were infrequent overall, with a very low rate of intrauterine demise and no maternal mortality seen in the 910 women with EDS who were studied, said Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey, an ob.gyn. resident at McGill University, Montreal.

In counseling women with EDS, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said that she would advise them that “these are the types of things we’re going to watch out for, and we’ll see how the pregnancy goes. But we have to be careful about these: preterm birth, antepartum bleeding, placenta previa. We’ll watch the growth of the baby; we just have to be more careful about these specific things.”

Compared with women without EDS, those with the inherited connective tissue disorder had adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of 3.2 for cervical incompetence (95% confidence interval, 2.0-5.1) and 2.2 for placenta previa (95% CI, 1.3-3.9; P less than .01 for both). Absolute rates for these complications were 0.8% and 0.7% for women without EDS and 2.1% and 1.4% for women with EDS, respectively.

 

 


Women with EDS also had AORs of 1.8 for antepartum hemorrhage (2.8% versus 1.6%; 95% CI, 1.2-2.7; P less than .01). Cesarean delivery was more likely in women with EDS, with an AOR of 1.6 (37.4% versus 26.9%; 95% CI, 2.0-5.1); conversely, instrumental vaginal delivery was less likely in women with EDS (AOR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.4-0.7; P less than .01 for both), meaning that spontaneous vaginal delivery was less likely in the EDS cohort.

The higher frequency of Cesarean deliveries may be attributable to anticipatory management by physicians seeking to avoid such complications as antepartum hemorrhage, as well as to the increased rate of placenta previa seen among the EDS cohort, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said.

After statistical adjustment, women in the EDS cohort were more than three times as likely to have hospital stays of both more than 7 days and 14 days (5.7% versus 2.1%, AOR = 3.1 for 7 days; 2.3% versus 0.7%, AOR = 3.8 for 14 days; P less than .01 for both).

Rates of some other maternal complications, such as pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, and gestational hypertension, were not elevated in the EDS cohort. Rates of premature rupture of membranes, chorioamnionitis, uterine rupture, postpartum hemorrhage, perineal laceration, and venous thromboembolism were also similar between groups.

However, not only was the AOR for preterm birth 1.5 for infants of women with EDS, but IUGR was more common in these neonates as well (AOR = 1.7, P less than .01 for both). The latter finding was unexpected, and Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey and her colleagues currently don’t have a mechanistic explanation for the higher IUGR rate.

Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey explained that she and her colleagues used data from the United States’ Health Care Cost and Utilization Project’s Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) to compare outcomes of women with EDS with the national sample as a whole.

Between 1999 and 2013, 13,881,592 births occurred in the HCUP-NIS cohort, with 910 deliveries to women who had EDS. These women were identified by ICD-9 codes, she said.

Comparing women with EDS to the non-EDS cohort, women with EDS were more likely to be Caucasian, have a higher income, and to be smokers; the cohorts were otherwise similar.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a heterogeneous disorder involving abnormalities of collagen synthesis, with 13 known subtypes not captured in the HCUP-NIS data, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey acknowledged. She characterized this as both a limitation but also a potential strength of the study.

“I really like this study because ... we know there’s 13 types of EDS that are genetically different ... They have their overlapping symptoms, but each one is different,” she said. “In an ideal world, we would have each subtype, and we would run this type of analysis on each subtype, to really be able to say to a patient, ‘You have this mutation, and this complication is going to be a big problem for you.’” The numbers of each subtype are so small that this is infeasible, she noted.

Still, the national sample acquired over many years offers real-world outcomes that clinicians can use in shared decision-making with EDS patients who are contemplating pregnancy or are already pregnant. Also, knowing which complications are more likely in patients with EDS can help plan optimal management of labor and delivery, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said.

Over the study’s 14-year span, the overall arc of EDS pregnancy outcomes is well captured regardless of mutation type. “It’s very applicable to the general population” of individuals with EDS, she noted. “Because it’s not type-specific, it’s really a good overview of what you can expect in EDS patients, regardless of the type.”

Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey reported no conflicts of interest and no outside sources of funding.

koakes@mdedge.com

SOURCE: Nicholls-Dempsey L et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2019 Jan;220(1):S381-382. Abstract 574

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– Women with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome who became pregnant were more likely to experience antepartum hemorrhage, placenta previa, cervical incompetence, and preterm birth, according to a retrospective cohort study of national birth data. Long hospital stays also were more likely among these women.

Kari Oakes/MDedge News
Dr. Laura Nicholls-Dempsey

Infants born to women with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) were significantly more likely to have intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) as well, an unexpected and as-yet unexplained finding, said the study’s first author, Laura Nicholls-Dempsey, MD, speaking at a poster session at the meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Complications were infrequent overall, with a very low rate of intrauterine demise and no maternal mortality seen in the 910 women with EDS who were studied, said Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey, an ob.gyn. resident at McGill University, Montreal.

In counseling women with EDS, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said that she would advise them that “these are the types of things we’re going to watch out for, and we’ll see how the pregnancy goes. But we have to be careful about these: preterm birth, antepartum bleeding, placenta previa. We’ll watch the growth of the baby; we just have to be more careful about these specific things.”

Compared with women without EDS, those with the inherited connective tissue disorder had adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of 3.2 for cervical incompetence (95% confidence interval, 2.0-5.1) and 2.2 for placenta previa (95% CI, 1.3-3.9; P less than .01 for both). Absolute rates for these complications were 0.8% and 0.7% for women without EDS and 2.1% and 1.4% for women with EDS, respectively.

 

 


Women with EDS also had AORs of 1.8 for antepartum hemorrhage (2.8% versus 1.6%; 95% CI, 1.2-2.7; P less than .01). Cesarean delivery was more likely in women with EDS, with an AOR of 1.6 (37.4% versus 26.9%; 95% CI, 2.0-5.1); conversely, instrumental vaginal delivery was less likely in women with EDS (AOR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.4-0.7; P less than .01 for both), meaning that spontaneous vaginal delivery was less likely in the EDS cohort.

The higher frequency of Cesarean deliveries may be attributable to anticipatory management by physicians seeking to avoid such complications as antepartum hemorrhage, as well as to the increased rate of placenta previa seen among the EDS cohort, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said.

After statistical adjustment, women in the EDS cohort were more than three times as likely to have hospital stays of both more than 7 days and 14 days (5.7% versus 2.1%, AOR = 3.1 for 7 days; 2.3% versus 0.7%, AOR = 3.8 for 14 days; P less than .01 for both).

Rates of some other maternal complications, such as pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, and gestational hypertension, were not elevated in the EDS cohort. Rates of premature rupture of membranes, chorioamnionitis, uterine rupture, postpartum hemorrhage, perineal laceration, and venous thromboembolism were also similar between groups.

However, not only was the AOR for preterm birth 1.5 for infants of women with EDS, but IUGR was more common in these neonates as well (AOR = 1.7, P less than .01 for both). The latter finding was unexpected, and Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey and her colleagues currently don’t have a mechanistic explanation for the higher IUGR rate.

Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey explained that she and her colleagues used data from the United States’ Health Care Cost and Utilization Project’s Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) to compare outcomes of women with EDS with the national sample as a whole.

Between 1999 and 2013, 13,881,592 births occurred in the HCUP-NIS cohort, with 910 deliveries to women who had EDS. These women were identified by ICD-9 codes, she said.

Comparing women with EDS to the non-EDS cohort, women with EDS were more likely to be Caucasian, have a higher income, and to be smokers; the cohorts were otherwise similar.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a heterogeneous disorder involving abnormalities of collagen synthesis, with 13 known subtypes not captured in the HCUP-NIS data, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey acknowledged. She characterized this as both a limitation but also a potential strength of the study.

“I really like this study because ... we know there’s 13 types of EDS that are genetically different ... They have their overlapping symptoms, but each one is different,” she said. “In an ideal world, we would have each subtype, and we would run this type of analysis on each subtype, to really be able to say to a patient, ‘You have this mutation, and this complication is going to be a big problem for you.’” The numbers of each subtype are so small that this is infeasible, she noted.

Still, the national sample acquired over many years offers real-world outcomes that clinicians can use in shared decision-making with EDS patients who are contemplating pregnancy or are already pregnant. Also, knowing which complications are more likely in patients with EDS can help plan optimal management of labor and delivery, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said.

Over the study’s 14-year span, the overall arc of EDS pregnancy outcomes is well captured regardless of mutation type. “It’s very applicable to the general population” of individuals with EDS, she noted. “Because it’s not type-specific, it’s really a good overview of what you can expect in EDS patients, regardless of the type.”

Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey reported no conflicts of interest and no outside sources of funding.

koakes@mdedge.com

SOURCE: Nicholls-Dempsey L et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2019 Jan;220(1):S381-382. Abstract 574

 

– Women with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome who became pregnant were more likely to experience antepartum hemorrhage, placenta previa, cervical incompetence, and preterm birth, according to a retrospective cohort study of national birth data. Long hospital stays also were more likely among these women.

Kari Oakes/MDedge News
Dr. Laura Nicholls-Dempsey

Infants born to women with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) were significantly more likely to have intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) as well, an unexpected and as-yet unexplained finding, said the study’s first author, Laura Nicholls-Dempsey, MD, speaking at a poster session at the meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Complications were infrequent overall, with a very low rate of intrauterine demise and no maternal mortality seen in the 910 women with EDS who were studied, said Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey, an ob.gyn. resident at McGill University, Montreal.

In counseling women with EDS, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said that she would advise them that “these are the types of things we’re going to watch out for, and we’ll see how the pregnancy goes. But we have to be careful about these: preterm birth, antepartum bleeding, placenta previa. We’ll watch the growth of the baby; we just have to be more careful about these specific things.”

Compared with women without EDS, those with the inherited connective tissue disorder had adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of 3.2 for cervical incompetence (95% confidence interval, 2.0-5.1) and 2.2 for placenta previa (95% CI, 1.3-3.9; P less than .01 for both). Absolute rates for these complications were 0.8% and 0.7% for women without EDS and 2.1% and 1.4% for women with EDS, respectively.

 

 


Women with EDS also had AORs of 1.8 for antepartum hemorrhage (2.8% versus 1.6%; 95% CI, 1.2-2.7; P less than .01). Cesarean delivery was more likely in women with EDS, with an AOR of 1.6 (37.4% versus 26.9%; 95% CI, 2.0-5.1); conversely, instrumental vaginal delivery was less likely in women with EDS (AOR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.4-0.7; P less than .01 for both), meaning that spontaneous vaginal delivery was less likely in the EDS cohort.

The higher frequency of Cesarean deliveries may be attributable to anticipatory management by physicians seeking to avoid such complications as antepartum hemorrhage, as well as to the increased rate of placenta previa seen among the EDS cohort, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said.

After statistical adjustment, women in the EDS cohort were more than three times as likely to have hospital stays of both more than 7 days and 14 days (5.7% versus 2.1%, AOR = 3.1 for 7 days; 2.3% versus 0.7%, AOR = 3.8 for 14 days; P less than .01 for both).

Rates of some other maternal complications, such as pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, and gestational hypertension, were not elevated in the EDS cohort. Rates of premature rupture of membranes, chorioamnionitis, uterine rupture, postpartum hemorrhage, perineal laceration, and venous thromboembolism were also similar between groups.

However, not only was the AOR for preterm birth 1.5 for infants of women with EDS, but IUGR was more common in these neonates as well (AOR = 1.7, P less than .01 for both). The latter finding was unexpected, and Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey and her colleagues currently don’t have a mechanistic explanation for the higher IUGR rate.

Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey explained that she and her colleagues used data from the United States’ Health Care Cost and Utilization Project’s Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) to compare outcomes of women with EDS with the national sample as a whole.

Between 1999 and 2013, 13,881,592 births occurred in the HCUP-NIS cohort, with 910 deliveries to women who had EDS. These women were identified by ICD-9 codes, she said.

Comparing women with EDS to the non-EDS cohort, women with EDS were more likely to be Caucasian, have a higher income, and to be smokers; the cohorts were otherwise similar.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a heterogeneous disorder involving abnormalities of collagen synthesis, with 13 known subtypes not captured in the HCUP-NIS data, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey acknowledged. She characterized this as both a limitation but also a potential strength of the study.

“I really like this study because ... we know there’s 13 types of EDS that are genetically different ... They have their overlapping symptoms, but each one is different,” she said. “In an ideal world, we would have each subtype, and we would run this type of analysis on each subtype, to really be able to say to a patient, ‘You have this mutation, and this complication is going to be a big problem for you.’” The numbers of each subtype are so small that this is infeasible, she noted.

Still, the national sample acquired over many years offers real-world outcomes that clinicians can use in shared decision-making with EDS patients who are contemplating pregnancy or are already pregnant. Also, knowing which complications are more likely in patients with EDS can help plan optimal management of labor and delivery, Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey said.

Over the study’s 14-year span, the overall arc of EDS pregnancy outcomes is well captured regardless of mutation type. “It’s very applicable to the general population” of individuals with EDS, she noted. “Because it’s not type-specific, it’s really a good overview of what you can expect in EDS patients, regardless of the type.”

Dr. Nicholls-Dempsey reported no conflicts of interest and no outside sources of funding.

koakes@mdedge.com

SOURCE: Nicholls-Dempsey L et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2019 Jan;220(1):S381-382. Abstract 574

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Obstetric patients with opioid use disorder fare well with medication-assisted treatment

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– A prospective study of pregnant women with opioid use disorder showed good success with tapering or discontinuation of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for women who wished to reduce or eliminate opioids while pregnant.

Kari Oakes/MDedge News
Dr. Craig Towers

In related work, naltrexone showed promise for MAT in pregnancy, with rapid fetal clearance and no neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) seen in women who were adherent to naltrexone.

Presenting early experiences from an obstetric clinic dedicated to care of women with opioid use disorder (OUD), Craig Towers, MD, said that the clinic began seeing patients in November, 2016. “Eastern Tennessee has a high rate of opioid use disorder,” so the clinic at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, fills an unmet need, he said, speaking during a poster session at the meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Women who enroll at the clinic are offered MAT; those who are stable on MAT and adherent to prenatal care also are offered the choice to taper from MAT and detoxify, said Dr. Towers, professor in the division of maternal-fetal medicine in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville.

The prospective observational cohort study found that, of a total of 367 compliant patients, 286 (78%) chose opioid tapering/detoxification, and of these, 152 (53%) did detoxify fully. Of these patients, 126 (83%) were taking no opioids at delivery, and their infants experienced no NAS.

At the time of delivery, 26 patients (17%) were taking opioids at delivery; 18 were back on MAT, and 8 were using illicit opioids. A total of 116 patients chose to continue MAT, whether they stayed on the regimen or converted back to stable MAT doses after beginning to taper.

Another option offered women at the OUD-dedicated obstetric clinic is the use of the Bridge device, a percutaneous nerve field stimulator, for OUD. Dr. Tower said that, in early use in 14 patients, the Bridge was successful in helping women transition off opioids completely in 10 (71%) patients.

About the larger study, Dr. Towers said, “This is the first study to prospectively report outcome data on a designated OUD clinic that offers detoxification during pregnancy.

“With a structured program that includes behavioral health and offers the option of detoxification, fetal risks are negligible, relapse rates by delivery are low, and NAS rates are greatly decreased,” wrote Dr. Towers and colleagues in the abstract accompanying the study.

In a related poster presentation, Dr. Towers reported outcomes for a subset of pregnant women with OUD who received naltrexone as MAT. Previously, said Dr. Towers, retrospective work showed no significant harm using naltrexone, which is one of the three approved options for MAT to manage OUD, along with buprenorphine and methadone. Naltrexone has the advantage of helping reduce cravings.

Of the 108 patients, 82 (76%) remained on naltrexone until delivery; in these pregnancies, there were no cases of NAS. However, among the 26 pregnancies in which women stopped taking naltrexone before delivery, there were 6 (23%) NAS cases.

Fifty-one patients were started on naltrexone before 24 weeks’ gestation, and of those patients, no changes were seen with fetal monitoring. There were no instances of spontaneous abortion or intrauterine demise in any participants.

The investigators tracked gestational age at the point of full detoxification and gestational age at the point naltrexone was started. Additionally, fetal response to naltrexone and maternal and neonatal outcomes were recorded.

“This is the first prospective study and largest to date on the use of naltrexone in pregnancy,” Dr. Towers and his colleagues wrote in the poster accompanying the presentation. “These data demonstrate that naltrexone MAT is a viable option for managing OUD in pregnancy.”

Dr. Towers reported no conflicts of interest and no outside sources of funding.

SOURCE: Towers C. et al. SMFM 2019, Posters 141 & 142.

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– A prospective study of pregnant women with opioid use disorder showed good success with tapering or discontinuation of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for women who wished to reduce or eliminate opioids while pregnant.

Kari Oakes/MDedge News
Dr. Craig Towers

In related work, naltrexone showed promise for MAT in pregnancy, with rapid fetal clearance and no neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) seen in women who were adherent to naltrexone.

Presenting early experiences from an obstetric clinic dedicated to care of women with opioid use disorder (OUD), Craig Towers, MD, said that the clinic began seeing patients in November, 2016. “Eastern Tennessee has a high rate of opioid use disorder,” so the clinic at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, fills an unmet need, he said, speaking during a poster session at the meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Women who enroll at the clinic are offered MAT; those who are stable on MAT and adherent to prenatal care also are offered the choice to taper from MAT and detoxify, said Dr. Towers, professor in the division of maternal-fetal medicine in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville.

The prospective observational cohort study found that, of a total of 367 compliant patients, 286 (78%) chose opioid tapering/detoxification, and of these, 152 (53%) did detoxify fully. Of these patients, 126 (83%) were taking no opioids at delivery, and their infants experienced no NAS.

At the time of delivery, 26 patients (17%) were taking opioids at delivery; 18 were back on MAT, and 8 were using illicit opioids. A total of 116 patients chose to continue MAT, whether they stayed on the regimen or converted back to stable MAT doses after beginning to taper.

Another option offered women at the OUD-dedicated obstetric clinic is the use of the Bridge device, a percutaneous nerve field stimulator, for OUD. Dr. Tower said that, in early use in 14 patients, the Bridge was successful in helping women transition off opioids completely in 10 (71%) patients.

About the larger study, Dr. Towers said, “This is the first study to prospectively report outcome data on a designated OUD clinic that offers detoxification during pregnancy.

“With a structured program that includes behavioral health and offers the option of detoxification, fetal risks are negligible, relapse rates by delivery are low, and NAS rates are greatly decreased,” wrote Dr. Towers and colleagues in the abstract accompanying the study.

In a related poster presentation, Dr. Towers reported outcomes for a subset of pregnant women with OUD who received naltrexone as MAT. Previously, said Dr. Towers, retrospective work showed no significant harm using naltrexone, which is one of the three approved options for MAT to manage OUD, along with buprenorphine and methadone. Naltrexone has the advantage of helping reduce cravings.

Of the 108 patients, 82 (76%) remained on naltrexone until delivery; in these pregnancies, there were no cases of NAS. However, among the 26 pregnancies in which women stopped taking naltrexone before delivery, there were 6 (23%) NAS cases.

Fifty-one patients were started on naltrexone before 24 weeks’ gestation, and of those patients, no changes were seen with fetal monitoring. There were no instances of spontaneous abortion or intrauterine demise in any participants.

The investigators tracked gestational age at the point of full detoxification and gestational age at the point naltrexone was started. Additionally, fetal response to naltrexone and maternal and neonatal outcomes were recorded.

“This is the first prospective study and largest to date on the use of naltrexone in pregnancy,” Dr. Towers and his colleagues wrote in the poster accompanying the presentation. “These data demonstrate that naltrexone MAT is a viable option for managing OUD in pregnancy.”

Dr. Towers reported no conflicts of interest and no outside sources of funding.

SOURCE: Towers C. et al. SMFM 2019, Posters 141 & 142.

– A prospective study of pregnant women with opioid use disorder showed good success with tapering or discontinuation of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for women who wished to reduce or eliminate opioids while pregnant.

Kari Oakes/MDedge News
Dr. Craig Towers

In related work, naltrexone showed promise for MAT in pregnancy, with rapid fetal clearance and no neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) seen in women who were adherent to naltrexone.

Presenting early experiences from an obstetric clinic dedicated to care of women with opioid use disorder (OUD), Craig Towers, MD, said that the clinic began seeing patients in November, 2016. “Eastern Tennessee has a high rate of opioid use disorder,” so the clinic at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, fills an unmet need, he said, speaking during a poster session at the meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Women who enroll at the clinic are offered MAT; those who are stable on MAT and adherent to prenatal care also are offered the choice to taper from MAT and detoxify, said Dr. Towers, professor in the division of maternal-fetal medicine in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville.

The prospective observational cohort study found that, of a total of 367 compliant patients, 286 (78%) chose opioid tapering/detoxification, and of these, 152 (53%) did detoxify fully. Of these patients, 126 (83%) were taking no opioids at delivery, and their infants experienced no NAS.

At the time of delivery, 26 patients (17%) were taking opioids at delivery; 18 were back on MAT, and 8 were using illicit opioids. A total of 116 patients chose to continue MAT, whether they stayed on the regimen or converted back to stable MAT doses after beginning to taper.

Another option offered women at the OUD-dedicated obstetric clinic is the use of the Bridge device, a percutaneous nerve field stimulator, for OUD. Dr. Tower said that, in early use in 14 patients, the Bridge was successful in helping women transition off opioids completely in 10 (71%) patients.

About the larger study, Dr. Towers said, “This is the first study to prospectively report outcome data on a designated OUD clinic that offers detoxification during pregnancy.

“With a structured program that includes behavioral health and offers the option of detoxification, fetal risks are negligible, relapse rates by delivery are low, and NAS rates are greatly decreased,” wrote Dr. Towers and colleagues in the abstract accompanying the study.

In a related poster presentation, Dr. Towers reported outcomes for a subset of pregnant women with OUD who received naltrexone as MAT. Previously, said Dr. Towers, retrospective work showed no significant harm using naltrexone, which is one of the three approved options for MAT to manage OUD, along with buprenorphine and methadone. Naltrexone has the advantage of helping reduce cravings.

Of the 108 patients, 82 (76%) remained on naltrexone until delivery; in these pregnancies, there were no cases of NAS. However, among the 26 pregnancies in which women stopped taking naltrexone before delivery, there were 6 (23%) NAS cases.

Fifty-one patients were started on naltrexone before 24 weeks’ gestation, and of those patients, no changes were seen with fetal monitoring. There were no instances of spontaneous abortion or intrauterine demise in any participants.

The investigators tracked gestational age at the point of full detoxification and gestational age at the point naltrexone was started. Additionally, fetal response to naltrexone and maternal and neonatal outcomes were recorded.

“This is the first prospective study and largest to date on the use of naltrexone in pregnancy,” Dr. Towers and his colleagues wrote in the poster accompanying the presentation. “These data demonstrate that naltrexone MAT is a viable option for managing OUD in pregnancy.”

Dr. Towers reported no conflicts of interest and no outside sources of funding.

SOURCE: Towers C. et al. SMFM 2019, Posters 141 & 142.

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Key clinical point: Over two-thirds of MAT-adherent patients chose detoxification.

Major finding: Of the 78% of pregnant patients on opioids who chose detoxification, 152 (53%) fully detoxified.

Study details: Prospective single-center cohort study of 367 pregnant women with opioid use disorder.

Disclosures: Dr. Towers reported no outside sources of funding and no relevant conflicts of interest.

Source: Towers C. et al. SMFM 2019, Posters 141 & 142.

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